Keith Stroud in charge of Blues opening game

The referee for this Saturday`s opening game against Sheffield United at St Andrews is Keith Stroud from Hampshire.

The last time he was in charge of a Blues game was last season when he took charge of Birmingham`s home game with Sunderland in August. Blue drew the game 2-2 and there were two bookings, a yellow card each for Colin Doyle and Dickson Etuhu.

Stroud went on to officiate 36 games last season, he showed the yellow card 119 times and the red card came out seven times.

P Keane and J Simpson will be running the line, while the fourth official will be R Shoebridge.